Melissa Jay Craig
Visual Art
Chicago, IL
Melissa Jay Craig is a sculptor, book and installation artist whose primary medium is handmade paper. She lives in Chicago. Melissa independently teaches and speaks a few times yearly as a visiting artist at universities, arts centers, process-oriented schools and occasional conferences and symposia throughout the United States.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, and is included in museum, rare book, print and artists' book collections. She is represented in the Chicago area by ZIA Gallery. Melissa has been awarded numerous grants and residencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts studio residency at Women's Studio Workshop. She is a Distinguished Resident at the Ragdale Foundation, where she was also the 2014 Prairie Fellow. Her wordless sculptural books have been featured in diverse publications such as Fine Books and Collections, Surface Design Journal, Quiet Lunch, Spoon River Poetry Review, Ploughshares and the Paris Review. She participated in Hand Papermaking journal's 2016 portfolio project.
Featured Work
The Jagged Sound of January
Excerpt by Mitzi Rapkin
I came north for the money. Specifically because there was none. MAN SEEKS LOW SALARY IN DISTANT LOCALE. That was the shocking headline that summed up the demise of my life before KUAK. My divorce decree said if I made less than twenty grand a year I would be off the hook for alimony (cha-ching) plus Luanne would have to take over her own damn law school loans and turn over monthly scratch to me for “maintenance”. I should have left her when the first loan payment came due in 1999. Hindsight.